The figure is an increase of 54.55 per cent over the profit made by the Bank in 2017.

Mr Eric Kwarkye Darfour, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank made this known during the 23rd Annual General Meeting of shareholders of the Bank held at Kwahu Praso in the Kwahu South District.

He said despite the unstable economic challenges of the country, the Kwahu Praso Rural Bank grew its income from Gh¢3,202,433.00 in 2017, to Gh¢,3,597,393.00 representing an increase of 12.33 per cent in the year under review.

The Bank's liability on customers' deposits also witnessed an increase from Gh¢9,316,768.00 in 2017 to GH¢11,096,183.00 in 2018 representing an increase of 19.10 per cent.

Mr Darfour said the loans and advances of the Bank also grew from Gh¢3,972,060 in 2017 to GH¢4,527,462.00 in 2018 representing an increase of 28.39 per cent.

He described the Bank's microfinance sector as the soul of its operations, and explained that despite the Bank recording some defaulters in their operational area, it had been able to make headway.

He said the Bank was doing all it could to ensure that the bank meet up with any possible increment from the Bank of Ghana in the near future.

In line with the bank's cooperate social responsibility, he said the bank donated computers and accessories to the Besease D/A School and provided streetlights to the Kwahu Praso community.

The Bank, he indicated had also made contributions towards the orientation programmes for newly trained teachers in various districts in their catchment areas.

In a speech read on behalf of the Managing Director of ARP Apex Bank Limited, Mr Kojo Mattah, congratulated the bank for meeting the Bank Of Ghana's Minimum Capital requirement of GH¢1,000,000.00 and encouraged other banks that have not met the new requirements to speed up with their compliance plan to enable them take advantage of bigger business opportunities in their area of operations.

He urged Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) to tighten their Internal Control Process in order to prevent unscrupulous persons from exploiting the weak systems to the disadvantage of the banks.

He urged the directors to ensure that they abide by the Bank of Ghana (BOG) directives in granting loans to serving directors.

Mr Mattah therefore entreated the banks to deploy technology in their activities because that is the key drivers of products, services and processes in the contemporary banking industry.